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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  19. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. drill — the tool
  5. stock — shares
  6. game — a match
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. stock — goods
  9. drill — army training
  10. spring — the season
  11. spring — a coil
  12. game — wild animals
  13. spring — of water
  14. file — a tool
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. drill — a practice
  18. deal — to handle
  19. cap — a lid
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. cap — of ice
  22. file — a document
  23. file — a line of people
  24. game — a kind of play

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com